Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1887-04-15
Especial Correspondence
SHASTA CITY. Cal. Marcel

mento river on the iron grooves of the railroad
since my last. We are few hours nearer
Oregon now. We are right before Mount
Shasta and the world Of eternal snow. This
long pine covered and oak clad water shed,
sloping down toward the south from Mount
Shasta, is the California Piedmont It il
much like the Piedmont Of Italy and not un-
like the famous Piedmont Of Virginia. This
region is fairly well watered from natural
springs which bubble up out of the ground,
fed from melting SHOWS on the majestic
mountains before us, and out Of which flow
the headwaters Of the Sacramento river.
And q little cost and care in diverting this
river and the smaller mountain streams out
over this rich soil would make it all very
profitable. At present the land is dry in the
summer; too dry to advise you to settle on it
without first making certain that you are to
have plenty Of water available.
Nearly all this ground that lies in ravines
and gulches has been washed over and over,
.ome Of it five and even ten times, for gold
1t was a famously rich mining camp thirty
years ago. And here dug for gold, working
by the side Of strong men, when but lad.
The new generation may be curious to know
how the various mines throughout California
were found. Let me briefly state that the
first men i'm these mines were a sort of mad
men, Like Cortez and his men they expected
every day, every hour, to come upon untold
wealth. Men really expected to find great
mountains Of gold, or at least nuggets as big as
barns. remember that l always, day after
day year after year, expected to some time and
in some sudden and strange way stumble upon
a colossal fortune Yet il should receive
twenty-five cents q day and board for what
work did i'll the mines, there would to day
be quite balance to my credit, and 100, 600
mi No <La
never paid the men who worked them at all,
either in this rich camp or elsewhere But
the gold that was dug out contributed to the
wealth Of the world and carried it on and up
so that no one ought to complain. The great
big Jumps OF gold, however, were never
found. You can search the gold his
tory Of all Australia through, as well
as California, and be surprised to learn
that there was never yet a single lump
or nugget Of gold found too heavy to be han
died even by woman. Many nuggets were
fourd, it is true, that were very promising in
weight and size, but that was all Yet they
were like alluring beacon lights, and every
new nugget or new and rich deposit of dust
only excited men the more; and so, like the
gold hunting Spaniards, they pierced every
mountain pass, every canyon, and burrowed
in the bed OF every river on the western slope
before they had been here a single year. It is
a notable fact that all the placer mines Of
California were found during the first few
months The Comstock Mines bear in mind.
are of quite another character. In the placers
We washed the gold out of the dirt and put it
in our purses the same day, clean and ready
for the MINT while the gold or silver from
the Comstock and other similar mines In
ground out of solid rock by a long and tedious
ocess. remember we useu TO wonuer why
..,.A ,sI, H. n.
haps as many mountains Of silver as Of gold
have been washed down, scattering silver dust
up and down the gulches, you must know
that silver dust corrodes and perishes, while
gold dust endures forever.
These mines here in Shasta were found by
four Oregonians. They made "rocker" out
of boards split from sugar pine tree, which
they cut down for that purpose. and rocked
out their fortunes in few weeks Then they
pushed on through the wilderness to their
homes in Oregon, and sent a small party by
water to San Francisco to get a stronger
force and push up the Sacramento river to
this spot from where l now write ExGover-
nor Boggs, Of Missouri. whose wife was a
granddaughter of Daniel Boone, threw his
sons aud his fortune into the expedition and,
of course, expected tremendous results. But
alas for miners luck! One Of the great grand
SONS of Daniel Boone, who was one of the
leaders of the expedition, told me only few
days since, in San Francisco, that nearly all
of the cattle and some Of the men persisted
from the extreme heat and for want Of water,
and the rest were glad to leave everything
behind them in the wilderness and escape
with their lives.
But when first came to this place-in 1856
it was very far from being a wilderness II
was here that first saw brick house or hotel
| g 81 ,1.~.,n
roadside inn This indeed was my f,rst city
my first glimpse of civilization. had been
badly bitten in one of the little Indian bottoms
little further on up the river toward the
Oregon line and was brought down here for
treatment. l was brought into the place on
mule one evening after the many lamps
were lighted i'll the one long and densely
crowded street, and it seems to me shall
never see anything so beautiful as was that
scene-the braying mules, the shouting Mex
lean packers or drivers, the red shirted miners
crowding each other or shouting hurriedly
back and forth and across. Splendid!
was soon able to creep about and picked
up young fellow almost as weak and helpless
as myself for a "pardner," and, pooling our
few ounces Of dust we bought pretty little
"rocker" for IS, a fifty pound sack Of -four for
SIS, a box Of yeast powders for fifty cents, a
long fitch Of bacon for 81, and so went out
from the town. took up a claim and became
miners. But it was a sorry struggle We
worked hard lived hard, tried hard in every
way to get few hundred dollars ahead, but
in vain. My "pardner" was a nice, sensitive
young fellow Of fine education and noble
nature. But we did not get on, and when
spring came we separated and tried other and
various pursuits.
The miners were very thick on the ground
so very thick that all this region for twenty
miles around was one surging mass Of men.
There were easily hundred men here then to
whsle there is one now. We were never out
of sight Of each other while at work, and
were in hailing distance Of many toiling,
handsome, good natured fellows all the time.
And l want to record my protest against the
many stories Of recklessness that are laid to
the doors Of the early miners here. Whatever
may have come after them, these first miners